Pancake nut

A friend asked me to post some of my wild pancake creations so here we go. Unfortunately there are no pictures but you can go back to the pink pancake posting if you want to see kind of what the pancakes are going to look like. I love making my kids pancakes from scratch, as a matter of fact I don't think I've used premade mixes ever since my oldest was born. Nothing wrong with premade, I just like to create my own.

Before I start making pancakes, I always scan my refrigerator to see what things I can add into the basic batter. Sometimes I may add mashed potatoes, either regular or sweet potatoes, maybe some finely ground carrot, cream cheese, ricotta cheese, apple sauce, nuts, flax seed, berries, or the other day I dumped in some plain yogurt. I say dumped because I never measure anything, I just go by the feel. My standard "extra add in" is always cinnamon. It gives the pancakes just something extra to smile about.

The basic batter is milk, egg, flour and if you wish, sugar. The amount of milk depends on how many pancakes you want to make. I put in maybe about 2 cups of milk, 1 egg and then I whisk a little. No need to use the electric mixer, it's more of a hassle than a help plus you don't want to overbeat the egg. Just get it mixed with the milk and then whisk in your extra add in of choice, and cinnamon.

Then in goes the flour. You can use all white, white and whole wheat mixed, or anything you wish, you are only limited by your imagination. Since I don't measure my flour, I have no clue how much I put in. I keep adding until my batter is thick soup consistency. Remember NOT to whisk the tar out of the batter because of the egg. Last you'll need to add the sugar/agave syrup/honey if you are going to sweeten your batter. I don't ever sweeten mine because we usually eat pancakes with 100% maple syrup and the kids don't notice the sugar missing from the batter.

If you use berries as your extra add in, wait until after you have added the desired amount of flour to add them and mix carefully with a spoon.

Some other extra add ins to try in your batter are for example grated apples, apple sauce, cottage cheese (no haven't tried it and probably won't), chocolate chips, toffee bits, crushed candy bars, or whatever your heart desires. The best scenario would be that you let the batter sit in your refrigerator either overnight or for a couple of hours before frying. I usually don't have time for that so don't worry if you have to skip this step. Fry them and voila, you are done.

Please note: these instructions will not make thick pancakes like you get from IHOP for example. These will be more like crepe thickness but still yummy.